How do I import my data?

Please import Leads and Companies first, followed by People, and then Opportunities.

We only support importing with an Excel or CSV file. We do not support special characters.

If you have team and visibility permissions on, please only have administrators import files. Non admins should not import records as they can create duplicates.

ProTip: Do a test import with 5 records first

If you are exporting from another service, please follow these steps instead: click here

Step by step instructions:

1 - Click on the Menu icon located at the top left corner.

2 - Select System Settings

3 - Navigate to Import Data under Data Management.

4 - Select the data type you want to import. If you are importing from another CRM, please follow the instructions here. Otherwise, continue.

Leads: a lead is a person you have not qualified (ex: contacts through a raffle). Once you have imported your leads, you can click to convert them to a contact and/or an opportunity in our system. After they are clicked to be converted, the company of the lead will show in your companies section, and the person will appear in the people section. Even if you do not create a company for a lead, we automatically create a company when you convert the lead to a person. Delete the company that is created if you do not want to keep it.Click on the image to expand.

People: People are contacts you would like to do business with, not users in your company account. For People files, the key is email address. Check for duplicate email addresses before importing. In this file, create a column called Company. That is how you will assign companies to people (just make sure they are spelled the same). Click on the image to see more available fields. Our native/hardcoded fields for People:

Opportunities: an opportunity is something you want to track through a Pipeline (a step-by-step process you want it to go through). You can add people and companies to opportunities. Areas in purple need to be filled out in order to show in reports.

Do you have columns that do not match these names?You can create a custom field before or during import. It you want to add data in bulk, we recommend creating your custom fields before importing. To create a custom field before importing, click how to to learn, otherwise continue to step 5.

Important note: Text fields can not be longer than 255 characters. If you import data that is more than 255 characters into a text fields then the record will not be imported.

Not sure what the character limits are for each field in the spreadsheet above? Here are the character limits for our hardcoded fields:

Field

Type

Filterable?

Character limit

Searchable?

Notes

Name

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

First Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

Middle Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

Last Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

All address fields

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Company name

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Details/description

Text Field/String

Yes

1,000

Yes

Email addresses

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Phone numbers

Text Field/String

No

30

Yes

You can import in a comma

Social urls

Text Field/String

No

255

No

Tags

Text Field/String

Yes

50

Yes

Do not import these characters: / and %

Title

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Website url

Text Field/String

No

255

No

Email domain

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Status

Text Field/String

Yes

255

No

Source

Text Field/String

Yes

255

No

Task name

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Do you have custom fields?

Below are our limits for custom fields. Our biggest problem is when people create custom fields for the ones we already have above. Please do not create any fields that are above.

Must be entered during import as MM/DD/YYYY. Do not use this for birthdate fields. Use number or text fields instead. This field changes per timezone.

Checkbox

Yes

No

This is a boolean value. Put in one column and select true or false, OR you can put 1 for true, or 0 for false

Number Field

Yes

20

No

URL

No

255

No

Percentage

Yes

10

No

Currency

Yes

20

No

Multi-Select Dropdown *

Yes

No

Put in one column and separate with semicolons

Tags

Yes

Yes

Put tags individually in separate columns that are all titled "Tag" and they will be created on import

Description

No

1,000

Yes

How to format a multi select dropdown in a spreadsheet for import:

How to format multiple tags in a spreadsheet:

Want to distinguish between types of emails? You can only do this for People imports. Leads will only take one email address. Put your extra lead emails in custom fields, or the details section and make sure to put them in the hardcoded email areas once you convert them to a person.

10 - You will then be given the option to match your data with the Copper hard-coded fields or your custom fields, if you have already made them. For basic things, like name, address, etc. scroll down through the options to see if it exists before creating a custom field.

11 - Copper will let you know of any Fields that are not matched correctly with Copper fields and any errors you might have in your data.

12 - Copper will let you know of any errors so you can fix them on-the-fly by clicking Fix

13 - Fix any errors by clicking on the -> arrow in the middle to edit and select Save

14 - Select Continue Import.

15 - Under the import summary, you can rename the import. Click Submit Import to start the import.

16 - You will be taken back to the Import data page where you can see the status of your import (ie. you will see the label “initializing” and once the import starts a progress bar.) When your import is complete you will have the option to see the Summary of the records created.

17. Made a mistake? Go back to System Settings --> Import Data and click Revert Import, which will delete the import records from Copper. Wait up to 10 minutes before re-importing data.

18. Still confused about what a CRM is, or how to use our system? Join our webinars and Q&A sessions here (will ask to log in).

Other Things to Note:

If you have Team Permissions set, they can affect how duplicates are handled. If the user who is importing is part of a team who's permissions limit their access to some data in the system, then the import may create duplicates because records not visible to that user will not be searched when looking for duplicates. As a best practice, these imports should be performed by a user who has unlimited access to the data in the system.

Text fields can not be longer than 255 characters. If you import data that is more than 255 characters into a text fields then the record will not be imported.

If you have more questions about using Copper, check out our helpful Resource Section!

Walkthrough Video:

Step by step instructions:

4 - Select the data type you want to import. If you are importing from another CRM, please follow the instructions here. Otherwise, continue.

Leads: a lead is a person you have not qualified (ex: contacts through a raffle). Once you have imported your leads, you can click to convert them to a contact and/or an opportunity in our system. After they are clicked to be converted, the company of the lead will show in your companies section, and the person will appear in the people section. Even if you do not create a company for a lead, we automatically create a company when you convert the lead to a person. Delete the company that is created if you do not want to keep it.Click on the image to expand.

People: People are contacts you would like to do business with, not users in your company account. For People files, the key is email address. Check for duplicate email addresses before importing. In this file, create a column called Company. That is how you will assign companies to people (just make sure they are spelled the same). Click on the image to see more available fields. Our native/hardcoded fields for People:

Opportunities: an opportunity is something you want to track through a Pipeline (a step-by-step process you want it to go through). You can add people and companies to opportunities. Areas in purple need to be filled out in order to show in reports.

Do you have columns that do not match these names?You can create a custom field before or during import. It you want to add data in bulk, we recommend creating your custom fields before importing. To create a custom field before importing, click how to to learn, otherwise continue to step 5.

Important note: Text fields can not be longer than 255 characters. If you import data that is more than 255 characters into a text fields then the record will not be imported.

Not sure what the character limits are for each field in the spreadsheet above? Here are the character limits for our hardcoded fields:

Field

Type

Filterable?

Character limit

Searchable?

NotesName

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

First Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

Middle Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

Last Name

Text Field/String

No

250

Yes

All address fields

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Company name

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Details/description

Text Field/String

Yes

1,000

Yes

Email addresses

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Phone numbers

Text Field/String

No

30

Yes

Social urls

Text Field/String

No

255

No

Tags

Text Field/String

Yes

50

Yes

Do not import these characters: / and %

Title

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Website url

Text Field/String

No

255

No

Email domain

Text Field/String

No

255

Yes

Status

Text Field/String

Yes

255

No

Source

Text Field/String

Yes

255

No

Task name

Text Field/String

Yes

255

Yes

Do you have custom fields?

Below are our limits for custom fields. Our biggest problem is when people create custom fields for the ones we already have above. Please do not create any fields that are above.

This is a boolean value. Put in one column and select true or false, OR you can put 1 for true, or 0 for false

Number Field

Yes

20

No

URL

No

255

No

Percentage

Yes

10

No

Currency

Yes

20

No

Multi-Select Dropdown *

Yes

No

Put in one column and separate with semicolons

Tags

Yes

Yes

Put tags individually in separate columns that are all titled "Tag" and they will be created on import

Description

No

1,000

Yes

How to format a multi select dropdown in a spreadsheet for import:

How to format multiple tags in a spreadsheet:

Want to distinguish between types of emails? You can only do this for People imports. Leads will only take one email address. Put your extra lead emails in custom fields, or the details section and make sure to put them in the hardcoded email areas once you convert them to a person.

10 - You will then be given the option to match your data with the Copper hard-coded fields or your custom fields, if you have already made them. For basic things, like name, address, etc. scroll down through the options to see if it exists before creating a custom field.

11 - Copper will let you know of any Fields that are not matched correctly with Copper fields and any errors you might have in your data.

12 - Copper will let you know of any errors so you can fix them on-the-fly by clicking Fix

13 - Fix any errors by clicking on the -> arrow in the middle to edit and select Save

14 - Select Continue Import.

15 - Under the import summary, you can rename the import. Click Submit Import to start the import.

16 - You will be taken back to the Import data page where you can see the status of your import (ie. you will see the label “initializing” and once the import starts a progress bar.) When your import is complete you will have the option to see the Summary of the records created.

17. Made a mistake? Go back to System Settings --> Import Data and click Revert Import, which will delete the import records from Copper. Wait up to 10 minutes before re-importing data.

18. Still confused about what a CRM is, or how to use our system? Join our webinars and Q&A sessions here (will ask to log in).

Other Things to Note:

If you have Team Permissions set, they can affect how duplicates are handled. If the user who is importing is part of a team who's permissions limit their access to some data in the system, then the import may create duplicates because records not visible to that user will not be searched when looking for duplicates. As a best practice, these imports should be performed by a user who has unlimited access to the data in the system.

Text fields can not be longer than 255 characters. If you import data that is more than 255 characters into a text fields then the record will not be imported.

If you have more questions about using Copper, check out our helpful Resource Section!